(Site Specific) Living Gallery Rehearsals

Today, Jimmy and I looked at how to structure our piece. We wanted to explore how the brain ages. The transition from Childhood to Adulthood and so on and so forth. We feel the Beirut map is a good symbol for the mind of child: Endless roads, opportunities and decisions to make. Then the piece of art made of the hair is a good symbol for the brain in old age, Alzheimer's and dementia. We had the idea that we would use insulation tape and create a tube map, and run toy trains along the tape to symbolise children playing with trains, with the tape symbolsing their freedom of decisions and opportunity. We then wanted to slowly cut parts out of the map, like putting obstacles in the way of the child's imagination, to represent adolescence and the loss of innocence, and stick them onto the wall opposite, slowly creating a spiders web. The web represents the mind of the older people.
We also choreographed a physical sequence once the web was built, where Jimmy was a spider and I would hold him as he scuttled across the wall.

Here is some research on the alzheimer's -

• Alzheimer's disease leads to nerve cell death and tissue loss throughout the brain. Over time, the brain shrinks dramatically, affecting nearly all its functions.
• The cortex shrivels up, this can damage memory, planning and thinking ability.
• Shrinkage is especially severe in the hippocampus, an area that is crucial to the creation of new memories. 
• Ventricles (spaces filled with fluid) enlarge
• Alzheimer's tissue has fewer nerve cells and synapses than a healthy brain
• Plaques, abnormal clusters of protein fragments, build up between nerve cells
• Scientists are not absolutely sure what causes cell death and tissue loss in the Alzheimer's brain, but plaques and tangles are prime suspects.

What is Alzheimer's really like?


"Imagine giving this drug to someone. Then, have them come to in a strange building, one they have never seen. Surround them with items they have never seen. They can be anything, just things you are sure they would not recognize.
Make sure they are all alone for say five minutes, then one by one, people, complete strangers begin to enter this room and talk to them as if they have known one another their entire lives.
Talk about things they have never heard of before. Talk as if one of them is their daughter, their spouse and their pastor. Tell them they are so sorry for their loss. All the time the person will be wondering what is going on.
Then tell them that you have decided because of their prognosis that you will be taking food and water from them. And then, tell them that everything is going to be alright. What is about to happen will be okay."

SOURCE: https://www.agingcare.com/articles/what-it-feels-like-to-have-alzheimers-177089.htm